


Alice Longbottom and the Year of the Badger

by WriterGirl719



Series: Alice Longbottom [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, in which the author decided that Neville needed an adorable Hufflepuff daughter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28094646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGirl719/pseuds/WriterGirl719
Summary: 13 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, 11-year-old Alice Longbottom arrives at Hogwarts, makes friends from other houses, and becomes involved in a fierce fight for the House Cup.
Relationships: Hannah Abbott/Neville Longbottom, Neville Longbottom & Luna Lovegood
Series: Alice Longbottom [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058225
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. The Boy Who Came Back

**Author's Note:**

> 1.) So this is technically Epilogue-compliant? Cause there's nothing there saying Neville *doesn't* have a kid. But basically, I only included the seven books as hard-and-fast canon and then picked-and-chose from the other stuff. So we'll have some details from the movies, some from the first Fantastic Beasts and almost nothing from Fantastic Beasts 2 or Cursed Child. Cause I Konmari canon: only keep what sparks joy.
> 
> 2.) This is intended to be a series, and like the main series, it will start off pretty light and fun and eventually get into some darker stuff, like blood purity, politics and magical rape culture. I thought it only fair to put that up front so everyone is warned before diving in.

As was normal for mid-July, it was very hot in Luna's room, but she didn't really mind it. There was a pleasant breeze coming in through the window and she reasoned that the heat would help the paint dry faster. Her father didn't understand why she'd wanted to do this all by hand, but she found it very soothing, the repetitive back-and-forth of the brush-strokes. Many times, these days, she thought of her friends as she worked, and one friend in particular.

It was, by her count, right about two years since anybody had heard from Neville. Yes, early July. That sounded right. His last letter had been to his grandmother, which seemed only proper to Luna's mind. Luna's last letter from him came the month before that, and he'd talked about how excited he was to go to America and see the Snakewood tree at Ilvermorny. It was the oldest of its kind in the world, he wrote, and thought to be the largest in North America. Luna wrote back but never received a reply, so she never knew for sure if he made it to Massachusetts.

Remembering that anniversary reminded her that his birthday was coming up, and she would have to get him something, to go with the other two presents that sat in her closet waiting for him. He would be turning 21, so it would have to be something special. Maybe she would make him something, like a pot, for whatever plants he decided to bring home with him. She had never made a pot before, but she could learn.

Paint dripped down her hand as she looked at the wall now covered completely in the bright yellow paint. She leaned back slightly to get a better look, then looked around the room. She smiled as she realized that she was done. All of the walls (or, since it was a round room, perhaps it was one continuous wall) were covered in the same yellow paint that glistened a little as the sun hit it. It had been quite a project, rebuilding their home after the war, but bit by bit and piece by piece, they had done it.

Luna pulled her wand from its nesting place behind her ear and waved it at the ladder, which slowly and gently lowered her to the ground. "Thank you," she said softly as she stepped off of it onto the wooden floor. She put the lid on the paint bucket and washed off the brush and left them in the center of the room next to the large stack of furniture and everything else that she'd had to move to make room for painting. She looked at the small clock sitting on one of the tables. It wasn't quite time for tea yet, but she was ready for a break, and her father would be home soon, so why not?

The kitchen had been one of the first things they rebuilt and now looked normal again, at least to anybody else's eyes. The counter-tops and cabinets were all full again, the walls and wood all returned to their bright, inviting colors. But it wasn't exactly the same, not to Luna's eyes, which had seen it all thousands of times throughout her life, and it never really would be. But she didn't mind it so much. Things changed. Home was home, no matter what colors the walls were or what patterns you painted on them.

It took a bit of scrubbing to get the paint off of her hands but once she'd managed it, she pulled her favorite kettle out and held it under the running water. She looked out the window to the garden, and the empty fields beyond it, and the narrow road in between them, which was usually empty. They didn't get many visitors, and yet there was someone standing there now. A tall figure, with a bundle on his back and another in his arms. The path from the house to the road was too far for Luna to see a face, but there was something very familiar about him.

Luna was not one to get excited easily, but she felt her heart doing something strange, and a surge of curiosity, and something like hope.

She turned the water off and left the kettle in the sink.

~

Now that he was here, his hand on the gate, Neville felt frozen. Until the sound of a door made him look up to the house.

He couldn't see her face until she was out of the house's shadow, but he recognized Luna immediately. She looked just as he remembered her. Well, she was barefoot, and there was yellow paint in her hair, and her smile was more excited than serene, but it was unmistakably Luna, and it gave Neville a courage and a relief that he hadn't felt in years.

He pushed the gate open and stepped into the garden. The little one wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, holding on as they began moving again.

The two friends met on the path in front of a bush of dirigible plums.

"Hello, Neville," she said, as calmly as if she'd last seen him that morning instead of two years ago.

He tried to reply but the words got stuck in his throat. Luna looked at the little girl, who was gazing at this new person with curious eyes through a veil of blond hair. It was impossible to ignore the resemblance between Neville and the girl, even if she tried.

"Who's this, then?" she asked gently.

He gave the girl a little glance. "Her name's Alice," he said, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

"Shall I take her? You must have carried her an awful long way."

Neville hesitated, just for a second, before he nodded and stepped forward. Luna held her arms out for Alice, who climbed into them with no worry at all, seemingly fascinated by this strange new friend. She immediately tried to grab at the small bells hanging from Luna's ears, and grinned when they gave a soft tinkle.

"Hello, Alice," Luna said. "You're a lovely one, aren't you?"

When she glanced back at Neville, she noticed a small smile of relief on his face. "You seem tired, Neville."

Neville nodded. "Yeah."

"Come inside," she said. "You can rest."


	2. Alice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Alice's eleventh birthday, and she gets a letter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't be posting two chapters at a time going forward. I just thought since chapter one was more of a prologue, I should include this one so you can see more of what the story will actually be. I hope you enjoy! Please leave some Kudos and/or a comment if you do!

The summer morning sun crept through the curtains and into the tiny bedroom where Alice Longbottom was still sleeping. Light fell over the potted plants sitting in a row under the window, made a narrow line on the ancient wooden floor that always creaked under her feet and landed on the bed, where she was lying covered in the patchwork quilt made as a gift from her great-grandmother.

She squinted against the light and pulled the covers over her head to hide from it, curling herself into the ball in the little dark cave that it made. She might be too awake now to go back to sleep, but she could try. She wondered if her dad and Hannah would just let her lay there all day. She didn't have anything to do today, did she? It was-

She shoved the covers off, her eyes wide. It was _her birthday._

Her _eleventh_ birthday.

Any thought of sleeping the day away was gone. She grinned and kicked her covers off until they were in a heap on the foot of the bed. The iron frame of the bed squeaked as she got up and, still in her pajamas and bare feet, hurried out of her room.

She could tell as soon as she opened her door that her parents were still in bed. There was a quiet stillness to the sitting room that she was familiar with, often being the earliest riser of the family. She could see tiny specks of dust floating in the sunlight that came through the window, where a brown owl and a barn owl were sitting together and pecking at the small bowl of food left for them on the windowsill. On the small table beneath them were the morning's _Daily Prophet_ and a thick parchment envelope addressed in dark green ink.

Grinning so hard that her face hurt, Alice grabbed the envelope with a cheerful "Thank you" to the barn owl, who gave a small chirp in response. She looked at the address:

_Miss A. Longbottom  
Room 101  
Leaky Cauldron  
London_

She hesitated for only a moment, thinking that perhaps her parents would want to watch her open her letter, but she was too excited to wait. She broke the thick red seal on the back and pulled out the two pages of parchment inside. The first was a letter, with the name _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_ emblazoned at the top, and underneath in slightly smaller print: _Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall._

_Dear Ms. Longbottom,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_  
Filius Flitwick,  
Deputy Headmaster 

Alice bounced up and down with glee and hurried away, leaving the two owls on the windowsill, pecking happily away at their food.

As she approached her parents' bedroom door, she slowed and her footsteps became softer. She avoided the creakiest of the floorboards as she got closer and put her ear to the door. It was silent within. She walked quietly away, then returned a moment later and put her ear to the door again, listening for any change.

She repeated this three times in the next five minutes, until she heard the muffled but familiar sound of Hannah's voice coming from within. They were awake! Alice knocked on the door in short quick hits: _tap-tap-tap-tap-tap._

Inside the bedroom, she heard the creak of the bed, then her father's drowsy voice calling: "Come in!"

Alice pushed the door open and ran in. Her father was propped up on his elbows, looking her way, while Hannah was still lying on her pillow, watching Alice with sleepy eyes. Alice climbed onto the bed, the letter still in her hand.

"It came, it came, it came!" she announced, in case they couldn't gather that fact for themselves.

"What did?" Neville asked, looking at the envelope with a knowing smile and waiting for it to stop moving so he could take it from her.

Hannah raised herself up to watch. "Are you getting bills now? Brilliant."

"My letter," Alice said, presenting it to her father.

He took it with a proud smile and read aloud: "'Dear Ms. Longbottom, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'" The rest of the letter looked much the same as his had, so he saw no reason to keep going. Instead, he wrapped his arm around his daughter and pulled her close, giving her a kiss on the head. "Happy birthday, Sunflower."

Hannah gave her a gentle squeeze on the arm, then reached over and took the second page. "It doesn't look like they've changed it much from our days," she said after giving it a quick look.

"Can we go shopping today?" Alice asked.

"Not wasting any time, are you?" Neville said.

" _Please?_ " She asked with a little bounce.

Neville and Hannah shared a look and a smile. "All right," he said. "But breakfast first."

~

Alice was still in her pajamas when she joined her parents at the breakfast table and found a pile of presents sitting in front of her usual seat. The first one to catch her attention was the only one that wasn't wrapped: a small sunflower in a yellow pot. It was a tradition for her father to give her some sort of plant for her birthday, but this was the first Muggle plant he'd gifted her in a while.

"I thought it better be something easy and safe, in case you want to take it with you," he said.

She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She opened the rest of her gifts in-between bites of egg, sausage and toast, starting with the smallest, a card from Uncle Ernie with three galleons inside. Uncle Justin sent a set of stationary: paper and envelopes with her initials in the corner and a lovely peacock-feather quill. Alice thought it strange that Aunt Hermione's gift had only her name and not Uncle Ron's, but understood once she opened it to find a study planner. It was bound in light brown leather, had the Hogwarts crest on the cover and was divided into sections by class. The package from Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny looked very similar, but when she opened it she found a journal, black with a red ribbon bookmark that ended in a small, gold lion charm.

"Blatant Gryffindor propaganda," Hannah said with mock anger.

Neville just smiled in reply.

The last present, wrapped in a long, thin box, was from Aunt Luna. When Alice opened it, she found a necklace, with a thin silver chain ending in a sturdy silver ring that had a full moon in the center. Alice turned the moon and saw it transform into a sun. She sat there for a long moment, transfixed by it, spinning it in her hand, until Hannah spoke: "All right. Finish eating. We've got a lot of shopping to get to."

"Right," Alice said, hanging the necklace around her neck.

~

Once she'd had her fill of breakfast, Alice returned to her bedroom, carrying her potted sunflower with her in her arms. She set the flower on the corner of her desk, as close as she could get it to the window, then spent several minutes worrying about whether the sun would come in at the right angle. She moved it around the desk, and the floor next to it, before eventually returning it to its original spot. She would just have to hope that that would do for now. She had big plans for the rest of the day, and there was no time to waste.

She wasted a little more time choosing her outfit, before deciding on jeans, a pretty white shirt with cap sleeves, and her favorite yellow trainers. She went to the bathroom to brush her hair, then stopped by the table to grab the money that Uncle Ernie had sent her.

"Are we ready now?" Neville asked when she met him by the door.

"Yes!"

"All right, then."

They left the quiet confines of their suite and walked through the busy, bustling Leaky Cauldron, down the stairs from the inn and into the pub, the busiest gathering place in Wizarding London. Alice had taken to the place easily after they'd moved in a few years before. She loved seeing people come in from all over the world, but there were also familiar faces that kept coming back again and again. Almost every day she would walk through and run into someone who would say hello and ask about her father or her grandmother, or mention how grown-up she was getting and wouldn't she be going off to school soon and was she excited? Sometimes she liked to tuck herself into a corner by the fireplace and just watch the people, until the time of evening a patron or two got a little rowdy and Hannah would send her upstairs.

Today, as they walked through the barroom, Alice was too excited to bother looking around. She just followed her father towards the bar, where Hannah was talking with Louis the bartender and going through a pile of mail. She put something in her back pocket as Louis leaned over the bar towards Alice.

"You're going to let this little devil loose with a wand, are you?" he said.

Alice gave him a mischievous smile that they both knew was a bluff. When she looked to Hannah, she saw a look of concern on her stepmother's face that quickly disappeared and was replaced by a smile. "We'll be in the Alley if you need me," Hannah told Louis. "Try not to need me."

The three of them went through the back door of the inn into the alley, where Neville pulled out his wand and tapped the bricks- three up, two across- and then gently pulled Alice away from the wall as the bricks began to move, pulling themselves apart to form an archway.

The family watched as Diagon Alley appeared stretched out before them.


End file.
